2013 Kia Sportage — a turbocharger always helps.

It’s a popular field, the niche market of the small SUV, and Kia enters it with the 2013 Sportage, a diminutive little hauler that starts out at $19,000 and rises to more than $30,000. There’s a lot of room in there for trim lines, options and the like, but suffice to say that the one we tried was the top-of-the-line SX, with the turbocharged engine. And therein lies its best attribute.

The SX Sportage turns the car from a so-so little SUV into something of a little pocket rocket, all by dint of its turbocharged 2-liter, four-cylinder 260-horsepower motor and six-speed automatic transmission. It’s a fast little car and will romp up that freeway ramp with alacrity. The problem, of course, is that the most expensive version of the Sportage is the only one with a decent engine. All the other trim lines get a 2.4-liter engine with 176 horses and that really doesn’t cut it. More often than not, a car like this will be used for hauling stuff – sometimes, heavy stuff – and an anemic little motor will not endear this wagon to its owner.

So, once you’ve paid out your $30,000-plus, largely because you wanted that turbo, what do you get? A pretty fast and spunky car that will carry five people and still have room left over for luggage. You can get the SX in two- or all-wheel-drive and although it’s not meant for meandering through a rock-strewn river bottom, it will keep you out of the occasional snow drift. I had hoped it would be a bit better on gas – its EPA mileage figures are 21/28 mpg, city/highway, and we averaged about 24 mpg.

Big glass sunroof and a $1,200 navigation system

On the inside, the SX we tested had the two big options that raised the price from $26,900 to $30,100 – a $2,000 “premium package” that included heated front seats and a chilled driver’s seat (this delicacy is becoming de rigueur in a lot of cars), a big glass sunroof and a cargo cover, among other things; and a $1,200 navigation system (why are built-in navi systems about 10 times more expensive than a Garmin or Tom Tom that you plop on the dashboard or suction-cup to the windshield? Just asking.)

I thought the inside of the SX had little to rave about, especially since it’s the priciest car in the Sportage line. The dashboard feels and looks a bit plasticky and there’s a weird design glitch – on top of the instrument pod is a rounded portion of dashboard that manages to be a nuisance by reflecting itself in the windshield most of the time the sun is out. The instruments are fine and the navigation system has no more faults than any other navi device – nearly all of them will occasionally get puzzled over which road is the best one to take, and some of them are more complicated to use than the one in the SX.

But being inside this car is where I discovered another bothersome trait. The ride. It’s bouncy and stiff and, other than thinking this tight suspension is a sop to the “Sport” part of Sportage, I couldn’t find a good reason to tolerate it. Kia is not alone in this bouncy field – the Acura RDX is just as bad, meaning just as stiff. Nonetheless, what I thought was: how do you tame this harsh ride? You don’t. You look for a smoother-riding car. The other thing I noticed from being inside is that the Sportage’s sight lines are not the best in the world.

Cabin feels a bit cramped

Stand outside the car and take a look at it. It has high flanks, a high beltline, and a fairly low greenhouse (the area surrounded by windows). What this means is that once you’re back inside the car, you have a somewhat cramped cabin. Look in the rear view mirror and you see a pretty small back window, a feeling reinforced by the size of the tiny rear window wiper blade. Yes, there’s a backup camera in the navi screen, but there’s still a big amount of car in the way of your all-around vision.

The SX’s price of $30,100 is about the average of what Americans now pay for a new car. If you’re going to spend that much, it certainly pays to look around. Kia and its corporate mate Hyundai are adventurous and innovative auto makers and, right now, have a certain cachet, the kind of cachet the Japanese manufacturers had about 30 years ago. Kia, like all auto makers, has a hit-and-miss record, but more on the hit side than the miss side. (One of their big hits is the Optima sedan, comparable to Hyundai’s Sonata.)

My feeling is that the Sportage SX is between the hits and misses and, therefore, you wonder where it sits. If I were in the market for one of these small SUVs I’d certainly take a look at these others: Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5.